Your employees can be your ultimate resource for taking on office-wide initiatives or planning specific employee events or programs. That’s why creating office planning committees can be a morale-boosting and cost-saving solution for your business. Not only are you able to plan office parties, programs and initiatives without costly outside help, but you’ll also automatically have employee support for these programs and events.

Party Planning

This is one committee in which most of your employees happily participate. A party planning committee can take over organizing events such as holiday parties. If you have the budget, this committee also could be in charge of organizing birthday celebrations for individual employees or one a month for all employees celebrating birthdays that month. When you form an office party planning committee, be sure to establish a firm budget around the events. It might be one budget covering the entire year of events so the committee can determine where best to appropriate the funds or a set amount for each party and a defined list of appropriate company-sponsored parties.

Community Service

Providing service to the community builds morale and improves your public relations outreach at the same time. You can form a planning committee to seek out and arrange for opportunities to volunteer in the community. It can meet to determine which organizations would be most appropriate to support, organize transportation to and from the volunteer event, design and order company T-shirts to identify your employees and provide refreshments throughout the event. The committee also can serve as the liaison between your business and the organization in order to plan and execute volunteer service.

Sustainability

Becoming a more environmentally friendly and sustainable business can help your bottom line and improve your public image. Get your employees involved in initiatives that include recycling, lower energy use and paperless filing by forming an office planning committee to oversee your sustainability efforts. Not only can this committee identify areas that offer opportunities for improvement in reducing your office’s carbon footprint, but it also can plan a campaign around the initiative to get more employees involved.

Office Health

Working in an office can be detrimental to health and fitness -- it often involves sitting at a desk or in meetings all day, and offices frequently have unhealthy snacks and treats available. An office health planning committee can outline and execute ways in which your employees can improve their health and fitness levels, such as company-sponsored fitness events like daily 20-minute walks, discounted gym memberships or even an entire wellness plan complete with incentives for participation.